Commentary: Reflections on Being a Professor-in-Residence

Deciding what to do during a sabbatical is one of the most exciting times for professors. An opportunity to recharge and renew and develop professional skills is an important contributor to staying current and relevant in research and in the classroom. This paper describes a professor-in-residence (PiR) sabbatical experience that was somewhat nontraditional. Instead of visiting an academic institution, a PiR sabbatical involves becoming embedded in a company (in this case, a small software company) and is the flip-side to the executive-in-residence concept popular in many business schools. This paper describes the experience and provides suggestions and insight for professors, hosts, and institutions when considering sabbatical options and how to plan for them.